Before the permit: reading Austin site plan and zoning cases as leads

By the time an Austin building permit issues, the design team is hired, the money is in, and in most cases the general contractor has been chosen. Readers who sell into those decisions (architects, engineers, land-use consultants, lenders, sureties, pre-construction) need the records that run before the permit. Austin has two, both public from the day they are filed.

The two cases

Site plan cases (SP-). Before a commercial, multifamily or mixed-use building can get a building permit in Austin, the city reviews a site development permit: the layout of the parcel, drainage and water quality, parking, setbacks, tree protection, landscaping. The application is a case with a number beginning SP and the year, and the city's land-use feed publishes it with the address, the parcel, the applicant and the agent. Groundbreak read 149 site plan cases in the last 90 days, every one with an address. See the glossary on site plans.

Zoning cases (C14-). A request to change a parcel's zoning district, add a conditional overlay, or amend a planned unit development. Numbered C14 and the year. The case goes to the Planning Commission (or the Zoning and Platting Commission outside a neighborhood plan area) and then to City Council for three readings. It is public at filing and it carries the applicant, the agent and the request. Groundbreak read 29 in the same 90 days. See zoning cases.

Both are on the City of Austin's land-use feed, which Groundbreak reads daily alongside the permit feed. Every case on a project file links to the city's record.

How far ahead they run

A rough timeline for a ground-up multifamily or office building in the city limits, from the public record:

| Step | Record | Typical lead on the building permit | |---|---|---| | Land under contract or bought | Owner change on the Travis CAD roll (no price in Texas) | 1 to 3 years | | Rezoning, if needed | C14 case filed; commission and council hearings | 9 to 18 months | | Site plan filed | SP case; review cycles with comments | 6 to 12 months | | Design registered with the state | TDLR registration (projects over $50,000) | 2 to 6 months | | Building permit applied | Application date in the permit feed | 1 to 4 months | | Building permit issued | Issue date; contractor and phone on the record | 0 | | Trade permits | Electrical, mechanical, plumbing, each a few weeks apart | after |

The gaps are the lead. Someone who sells structural engineering wants the C14 case and the owner change; someone who sells pre-construction wants the SP filing; someone who sells into the first trades wants the TDLR registration and the permit application date, which the feed carries weeks ahead of the issue date.

What each case tells you

A site plan case names:

• The applicant. The owner or the developer's entity, sometimes a contract purchaser.
• The agent. Almost always a civil engineering firm or a land-use consultancy. The agent is the firm that was hired first and knows who else has been.
• The parcel and the address. Which gets you the owner of record on the Travis CAD roll and any owner change.
• The use and the size, in the case description: "new 300-unit multifamily", "office, 150,000 sq ft", "site plan for a 6-story mixed use".

A zoning case names the applicant, the agent (often a land-use attorney), the parcel, the current and requested districts, and the hearing dates as they are set. The request itself is the tell: a change from commercial to a vertical mixed-use district with a height overlay is a tower; a conditional overlay removal on a corner lot is a gas station.

Neither names the general contractor, which is the point. A project with an approved site plan and no building permit is a project where the GC and every trade are still open.

Reading it by role

Architects, engineers, consultants. The earliest the project exists in public is the owner change on the roll, which is too early to act on (land can sit). The C14 filing is the first real step: the owner has hired a land-use agent and decided to build. If you are not already on the team, the window is between the C14 filing and the SP filing, because the SP names the civil engineer and by then the architect is hired. The TDLR registration, which names the design firm, confirms it.

Lenders and sureties. An approved site plan is an entitled site. The construction loan on it will not be in any Travis County feed (the county publishes no deed or deed-of-trust index Groundbreak can read), so the site plan approval and the permit application are the two public signals that a loan is closing.

General contractors and pre-construction. The SP approval is when the owner starts talking to builders. A GC reading the approvals weekly is reading the bid list before it exists.

Subs and suppliers. Too early. Read the building permit guide: the permit names the GC and carries the phone, and the trade permits follow it.

What Austin does not publish

No sale prices (Texas does not disclose them), no deed index from Travis County, no construction loan feed, no notice of commencement. Groundbreak shows what the city and the appraisal district publish and nothing it cannot verify; the coverage page lists each source and what it carries. Anyone quoting an Austin land price got it from a broker.

Who this is for, and who it is not

If you are a sub or a supplier, these cases are too early for you. Read the building permit guide instead: the permit names the GC and carries the phone.

If you follow a handful of sites you already know, the city's case search is free and will tell you the status of each. The cases become worth reading as a feed when you sell design, engineering, financing or pre-construction services and want to know about a project in the months between the rezoning and the permit, before the team is full. For that reader, the Austin development database carries every SP and C14 case, every TDLR registration and every permit on one project with the dates in order, with the applicant and the agent on the Pro plan. The most active developers in Austin table is free.